[Moncton] Dieppe Developments
 

This is to serve as a placeholder for discussions on future developments in the City of Dieppe:

Note that construction on phase one is nearing completion and they have started work on phase two....

New Empire Theatres at Crystal Palace, including eight cinemas with stadium seating and one with the "Empire Extra" experience. This complex is now open.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7040/6...218d4e4134.jpg
photo by porchmouse

It was confirmed in the T&T today what has already been rumoured in our forum, that Purolator is moving their customer service centre (and 335 jobs) from Highfield Square and the Terminal Plaza complex to the old Jean Coutu building in downtown Dieppe. Renovations are currently underway.

A big win for downtown Dieppe. A loss for downtown Moncton, but Purolator's hand was forced by Crombie REIT's decision to shutter Highfield Square.

I presume the reason why they relocated the whole kit and caboodle to Dieppe rather than occupying more space in Terminal Plaza is due to rent, but I don't know that for sure.

I went to see a movie at the new theater last week and I was VERY impressed by the interior...very modern and clean. The concessions will take some getting used to though...its set up sort of like a cafeteria where you snake through picking items up along the way like your pop, popcorn, candy (they have a "bag your own" m&ms station) etc...you then proceed to one of the cashes to pay.

They have tons of automated ticket buying stations which is great because most people use debit/credit now anyways.

Unfortunately I didnt get to see the "Empire Extra" screen as my wife didnt like the sounds of the navy seals movie playing in it... :P

A big win for "east downtown" and a loss for "west downtown"...now that I live in Moncton and work in Dieppe is all the same thing...It really takes me aback if I overhear someone comparing Moncton to Dieppe and whatnot...really if it wasnt for the language issue M/D/R would all be "codiac city" by now.

Really though if you took down the "welcome to dieppe" sign on Paul st would a tourist know they were in a different city when they went under the overpass there?

When they say the old Jean Coutu, are they referring to that little strip mall at the corner Champlain/St-Croix street, across from the current Jean Coutu ?

If so, where are these 300+ staff members planning on parking their cars?

I believe so and yes, I was wondering the same thing. :)

Of course an employer is not obligated to provide parking for their employees and this building is not far from the transit terminal at Champlain Place.

I dont know why the media keeps saying the old Jean Coutou...it used to be a Shoppers Drug Mart...It now has some dentist offices and "Scrubs Canada"...Im assuming these tennants will be kicked out...Personally I think they will need to expand the building to hold the whole call center. It takes up quite a bit of floor space in the two buildings where it currently resides.

A quick Google Maps viewing has shown me that this building is a bit bigger than I thought...however it still may need expansion. It has also shown me there is a substantial parking lot behind the building...I'm guessing this building was home to a lot more people in the past.

I'm pretty sure there was PJC in there at one point. Maybe 8 years ago. I also believe that building has a large commercial unit (walk-out) basement style and a fairly large parking lot in the back.

Yes, it indeed was a PJC before it became a Shoppers. There is apparently a large useable basement in the building as well. I was not aware of the parking lot in behind, but is it big enough for 330+ workers?

In looking at it with Bing maps' "birds' eye" view, I count 80-85 parking spots out back.

Was at the Home Show on Saturday and noticed, at the Perfection Contracting boot's, there was a sign announcing the construction of an Ultramar with a Second Cup on their development where the new NBLCC is on Dieppe Blvd, as long with the new commercial building being built behind the new NBLCC. The sign for that last one showed that 1 of 4 was already leased.

Interesting, I noticed the new strip mall going up behind the new NBLC store on Dieppe Blvd the other day.

So, the new Second Cup will be a standalone? There is room on the south side of that property. I presume this is where the Ultramar and the Second Cup will be built.

Second Cup is looking to build a total of 3-4 standalone stores in the metro area. This will be their second standalone. I presume this is a pre-emptive strike against Starbucks......

The Second Cup seems to be part of the Ultramar building.

It said that it was planed to open at Fall 2012. So I assume they plan construction after that strip mall is complete, wich shouldn't be too long.

Re the new Purolator office. They may well have 335 total employees, but presumably that centre is open 24 hours. When you factor in three shifts, 7 days a week, vacation, holidays etc, it's perfectly reasonable to expect something more like 90 people there at any given time.

According to the T&T, Lou MacNarin School in Dieppe is slated to become a K-5 school this fall. Grades 6-8 will be moved to Lewisville Middle School.

The reason for this is growth in the anglophone population in Dieppe. Lou MacNarin was built in 1995 and initially has a student population of 460 students. Since then, enrollment has grown to nearly 600 students and is projected to reach 700 students in five years time.

Given this growth rate, I could envisage the need for a second anglophone (K-8) school in Dieppe in 10-15 years time......

It's in the paper today that there is a dust-up going on in Dieppe between the mayor and the city's two MLAs over what to do with the Harrisville/Dieppe Blvd overpass over Rt 15.

The MLAs consider replacing the overpass as a high priority item given the worsening traffic congestion in the area, and the growth in the area related to the GMIA and the Dieppe Industrial Park. The want to install a partial cloverleaf at the interchange (I don't know how this would work given the Holiday Inn and the Master Packaging plant on the Dieppe side of the overpass, and the soon to be built Fairfield Inn by Marriott on the Moncton side).

The mayor on the other hand thinks infrastructure improvements on Champlain St are a higher priority and he seemed quite miffed at the MLAs.

I tend to side with the MLAs on this one, but I would be happy if they just widened the overpass to five lanes and added an extra set of traffic lights. :)

When possible, land next to interchanges is reserved and kept free of development for possible future expansion. This map shows that a large parcel of land on the northwest side is not included in the commercially designated zone, I'm guessing it must be reserved for this expansion.

The other corners are not as large, but there are interchanges in much more cramp spaces than this that work fine.

All of these are at roughly the same scale and show that there would be room for a parclo at Dieppe blvd. I use to take these on a regular basis, the turn radius is a bit intense, especially the QC one, but they work given that they both run right through the city.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=...01929&t=m&z=16

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=...01929&t=m&z=16

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=...01929&t=m&z=16

I've heard that the hotel will actually be inside of the loop created by the parclo in the north-west corner of the intersection. The ramps will come out somewhere around where the driveway to Odessa is right now.

Mind you, this immediately made me think of the Ye Olde Offramp Inn
http://images.wikia.com/simpsons/ima...offrampinn.JPG

This is just my opinion, but there is just too many threads about the Greater Moncton area, I don't think it's needed and most of these should all be merged... :koko:
Just plain silly, sorry.